The present invention is directed to an apparatus for driving fastening elements, such as nails, bolts, screws, clips and the like, into a receiving material and includes a guide extending parallel to the driving direction with a magazine mounted on and extending outwardly from the guide. The magazine forms a guide channel substantially perpendicular to the guide and arranged to receive a carrying strip holding the fastening elements to be transported into the guide. A transport slide is mounted on the magazine for movement thereon between a release position, a working position and an end position adjacent to the guide. The guide channel is open at the free end of the magazine and the transport slide is movable along the magazine towards the free end thereof against the force of a spring. The transport slide has a spring-like transport latch and a spring-like retaining element is mounted on the magazine with the transport latch and the retaining element being arranged to extend into a clear opening in the guide channel for contact with at least one of the carrying strip and the fastening elements.
In a known fastening element driving apparatus, disclosed in British patent 1,281,586, a magazine projecting perpendicularly from a guide has a spring-like retaining element extending into a clear opening of a guide channel. On the magazine, there is a transport slide with a spring-like transport latch which also projects into the clear opening of the guide channel and can be displaced towards the free end of the magazine against the force of the spring. The carrying strip with the fastening elements located in the guide channel cannot be removed opposite to the transport direction of the guide channel, since the transport latch along with the retaining element project into the clear opening of the guide channel and interact positively with the carrying strip. Such removal can take place only in the transport direction through a through hole in the guide located opposite the guide channel. When the carrying strip is pulled out of the guide channel, the holding forces produced by the retaining element and the transport latch acting on the carrying strip must be overcome at the same time.